A hand history I wrote up from Poker After Dark show, regarding snap-shoves and how they can help define a hand range, especially from a tight player

Poker After Dark, season 5

In this episode of Poker After Dark, the players were playing a winner-take-all cash game freeze-out: essentially a tournament but played cash-game style.
Phil Gordon raised to $1,200 UTG with A♣ K♦. Right behind him, Gabe Kaplan made it $6,200 with Q♦ Q♥.

Everyone folds and action returns to Gordon. He immediately says, “I’m all-in” for $20,350.

Kaplan thinks for quite a long time and eventually folds.

Phil Hellmuth says, “Ace-king I thought maybe Phil Gordon had. Because he reraised so quickly. If he had aces or kings he might have hemmed and hawed a little bit, I thought.”

Hellmuth’s point: It’s common for players with AA or KK to put on a little act of indecision before raising or shoving pre-flop. This indecisive act might be an actual verbal act (literal ‘hemming and hawing’), it might be physical indicators of indecision (a pained grimace or shaking of the head, for example), or it might just be pausing a while before acting.

Hellmuth’s read was also based on the fact that he knew Phil Gordon was a tight, disciplined player. He knew Gordon wasn’t shoving very light. If Hellmuth could reduce Gordon’s shoving range to something like AK, AQ and TT+, and if Gordon’s immediate shove made KK/AA very unlikely (with AQ, TT, and JJ also unlikely as Gordon would want to think a little first), then AK is the only remaining snap-shoving hand.

Kaplan was obviously on the fence between calling and folding here. Gordon’s immediate shove could have been a helpful clue in deciding to make this call.

I tend to agree that a PF snap shove tends to be a player who wants to look stronger than he really is ... but usually being more towards the middle of his range than the bottom.

But it also could just be a player who just really doesn't want a call as well, especially if it's their first time to act in the betting round. A snap cold 3/4-bet shove multi-way tends to be stronger, sending a message that they are just happy to take it down and not have to try and fade the players left in the hand.

I also think it really depends on the amount of time the action took to get (back) to him as well. If a player reads that the opponent is on the fence the impulse might be to act quickly so as to get the action back on that player as quickly as possible, thus limiting the amount of time the player can dwell on their previous decision. I think a player can do this with weaker hands just for this purpose.

There is one player in particular that loves to limp-snap shove >$100 with 22-TT/AT-AQ/KQ. He really doesn't want a call, just to take it down. It's 'never' AA-JJ/AK, there is always a pause with those hands before the shove. GL

Yeah, for sure. The more "scared money" someone is, the more likely they will snap-shove with strong hands. And the more shallow they are, the more likely as well. Lots of factors and definitely not a super-reliable read.

That's a really tight fold from Gabe especially considering the game was shorthanded and he already invested at ~30% was and, was there any pressure for payouts in play btw?

It's winner take all and not only is it a tight fold, it's totally terrible.

Gordon's spot here should be fairly standard and I can't imagine that he doesn't immediately know what to do with any of his holdings so instashoving could mean nothing. Whenever I play live you have so much time to think in between the other players tanking that I pretty much insta bet-check-shove when it's my turn.

I don't really agree. Back in the day these people were so tight. It was common to see folds you'd never see these days. (Which is related to Kaplan folding the QQ.) And I think Gordon's tightness was one reason Hellmuth had that opinion about his range. It's a read you could only make on a player whose style and tightness you were pretty certain about to begin with.

Then he could have picked A5s if he wanted to 3bet and then fold and my goodness the sizing of his 3bet. Was he expecting anything other than a shove or fold response? If you're going to 5x someones open with queens for 1/3 of your stack, don't compound the error by folding the best hand.

Definitely not defending Kaplan folding QQ; clearly terrible yes.